We couldn’t call ourselves fans of hot wings if we excluded Cajun chicken wings. These wings can be enjoyed with or without the sauce. I really recommend the sauce though. You can choose to toss the wings in the sauce, or you can just use it as a dipping sauce. My personal preference is to use it as a dipping sauce.

Cajun Chicken Rub

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

½ teaspoon basil

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1/4 teaspoon cumin

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

You can adjust the spiciness of the seasonings to your liking. Add more cayenne pepper powder if you want a little more heat. Drop it a little bit if you want something a little milder. Mix the seasoning before you start handling the chicken. If you’d like to make this ahead of time, you can do so and keep it fresh in the refrigerator for a few days. Making the chicken rub ahead of time prior to making these wings will make it easier on your in terms of workload and time. When you make this seasoning, make sure you save a pinch or two for the sauce below.

Hot Dipping Sauce

4 tablespoons mayonnaise

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon Louisiana-style hot sauce

1 pinch of the chicken rub from above

This recipe should get you about 8 to 12 wings. We like plenty of sauces with our wings, but have found this recipe to be enough for up to a dozen wings. If you like more sauce than this, you can always make more. There’s nothing wrong with using a little extra sauce right?

Preparing & Seasoning

Before you being, make sure your wings are thawed. You also need to make sure they are dry as well. Dry the chicken wings with paper towels to remove any excess liquids. You should already have the seasoning mixed and ready to go prior to this step. Place your dried chicken wings in a large bowl. Sprinkle the seasoning mix over the chicken wings. Remember you need to save a save a pinch or two of the season mix for the sauce, so set that aside in a separate, and clean container first. Using both hands, mix the rub in to the wings. Make sure to massage the seasonings into the chicken.

Cover the now seasoned chicken wings and place it in the fridge for at least 12 hours. This gives it time for the chicken to absorb the flavors from the seasoning.

Cooking

Once the chicken has had enough time to absorb all the flavors, you can take it out of the fridge and cook it with your preferred method. Here, we’re all about smoking our chicken wings, so that’s what we do. We really recommend you try smoking them, but any other method will work fine as well.

Once the wings are cooked, you can either toss the wings in the sauce, or just give it a good dip in the sauce bowl. The great things about these wings is, you don’t even have to use the sauce. It’s already delicious without the sauce, but it certainly gets better with it. Give it a try. If you like Cajun food, you’re going to love these spicy Cajun chicken wings.